Kwaay Paay Peak is a 1,194-foot summit inside Mission Trails Regional Park, accessible from the Father Junipero Serra Trail corridor in San Diego's 92119 ZIP on the San Carlos side of the park. The name translates to "chief" in the Kumeyaay language, honoring the Indigenous people who inhabited the San Diego River Valley for thousands of years before European contact. The 2.4-mile out-and-back trail gains 882 feet of elevation, with the steepest pitch concentrating in the final 0.3 miles where the grade exceeds 40 percent through coastal chaparral and granite steps. Summit views extend from downtown San Diego and the Pacific Ocean to the west, across Mission Gorge to the North and South Fortuna peaks, and east toward the Laguna Mountains — a panorama that many trail guides rank as the best in the park despite Cowles Mountain's greater popularity and higher elevation. Post-hike soreness from the sustained vertical push responds well to deep-tissue recovery work, and Navajo Spa on Lake Murray Blvd in San Carlos handles the soft-tissue maintenance demand from the Mission Trails hiking population. Two trailhead options — the east trail near Kumeyaay Lake Campground and the west trail from the Old Mission Dam Historic Site — offer different approaches, with the Old Mission Dam route adding a flat 0.3-mile connector through riparian habitat along the San Diego River. The trail is fully exposed with no tree canopy, making early-morning and late-afternoon windows critical during summer months. Leashed dogs are permitted, bikes are not, and no permits or entrance fees apply. Post-summit refueling at JuJu's Kitchen in Grantville gives hikers a meal option on the Mission Gorge Rd corridor heading back toward the freeway. Rattlesnakes are common in the park's chaparral zones during warm months, and park rangers recommend staying on maintained trail surfaces through boulder fields.